Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, urged Democrats in her state to vote against President Joe Biden in the Feb. 27 primary, citing his support of Israel as they wage war with Hamas in Gaza.
She urged her fellow Democrats to instead vote “uncommitted” to protest the president in a video posted over the weekend by Listen to Michigan, a campaign run by her sister opposing “war and genocide in Gaza.” More than 29,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday. The war began when 1,200 were killed and 250 were taken hostage during an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
“This is the way you can raise our voices. Don't make us even more invisible. Right now we feel completely neglected and just unseen by our government,” Tlaib said outside a civic center in Dearborn, Mich., on Saturday. Over half of the city’s 110,000 people are of Arab descent, according to the U.S. Census. “If you want us to be louder, then come here and vote ‘uncommitted.’”
Michigan’s primary is not until the end of the month, but early voting began on Saturday and runs through Feb. 25. On the Democratic ballot, Biden faces only Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, whose campaign has floundered, and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who has dropped out. The president has cruised through the handful of primary contests so far, with little expected to disrupt his path to the nomination.
But the call to vote “uncommitted,” an option in Michigan, comes as Biden faces criticism from some corners of his own party, including Muslim and Arab Americans, that his Israel policy is failing to reign in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his bombardment of Gaza. The Biden administration has pushed back on Israel’s planned ground attack on Rafah, a city in Gaza’s south where around 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have congregated as 80% of their homes have been destroyed, according to U.N. officials
Despite a growing public gap between Biden and Netanyahu, the president is pushing for billions in military aid for Israel, as well as funds for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. For Tlaib and others who share her views, including antiwar protestors who have disrupted speeches by the president and other politicians across the country in recent months, continuing to enable and support Israel’s war effort is tantamount to assisting genocide.
“As important, as you all know, to not only march against the genocide, not only make sure that we're calling our members of Congress and local electeds and patting passing city resolutions, all throughout our country, it is also important to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn to say, enough is enough,” Tlaib said on Saturday. “We don't want a country that supports wars and bombs and destruction. We want to support life. We want to stand up for every single life killed in Gaza.”
Tlaib is not alone among prominent Michigan Democrats who have backed the “uncommitted” campaign. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, former Michigan Rep. Andy Levin and a slew of state and local officials have all signed on to vote “uncommitted.” Our Revolution, the political organization founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, I-Vt., has also endorsed the campaign, along with a Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Sanders himself has declined to describe the conflict as a genocide and remains a vocal supporter of Biden.
The Listen to Michigan website notes Trump won the state by just 10,000 votes in 2016. Biden won by around 154,000 votes in 2020.
“Don't stay home, come out and tell the president you're mad at him,” Levin said on MSNBC’s “Ayman” on Sunday. “There's eight months left or something like that until Nov. 5, let's send a message to the president, that if you change course, which you must do for for justice, then I think that people will return to him”
Hammoud and other local Arab-American leaders canceled a meeting with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in January over his disagreement with the president’s policies. Earlier this month, he instead met with members of the administration.
“I firmly believe that it’s always the right time to do the right thing. And in this moment the right thing here is calling for a cease-fire, it’s restricting military aid and support to Benjamin Netanyahu and the most right-wing government in Israel’s history,” Hammoud said on Al Jazeera English’s “UpFront” last week. “I think these are tangible steps that can be taken to demonstrate good faith to a community in which you want to build support for the upcoming election. I think anything else is unacceptable.”
“Donald Trump is a threat to American democracy. I recognize this. Many in the community recognize this in the upcoming election,” he continued, asking what will Biden do “to prevent the unraveling of this American democracy and why is the alignment with Benjamin Netanyahu potentially worth sacrificing that democracy.
Earlier this month, the mayor announced an increased police presence at places of worship and “major infrastructure” after an influx of “bigoted and Islamaphobic rhetoric online targeting the city.” Hammoud blamed the attacks on a Wall Street Journal op-ed dubbing the city “America’s Jihad Capital.”
Other major Michigan Democrats are backing the president, including the popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and both of the state’s senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters. But an AP-NORC poll from earlier this month showed two-thirds of U.S. adults and a majority of Democrats disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war, his lowest marks since it began.
After running roughly even with former President Donald Trump in Michigan polls in the fall, Biden has consistently found himself down against his 2020 rival in general election polls there over the last couple months.
Tlaib, one of the first two Muslim congresswomen in U.S. history, represents Dearborn and other communities in and around Detroit with large populations of Muslim and Arab Americans. Members of those communities in Michigan and in key swing states throughout the country have organized “Abandon Biden” efforts to foil the president’s reelection bid, not out of support for Trump, but to push Democrats to change their positions on Israel and the war in Gaza. Tlaib has not publicly endorsed the campaign.
“President Biden has sent thousands of bombs to Israel’s military, while blocking international efforts to stop the violence and watering down attempts to secure sufficient humanitarian aid,” Tlaib wrote in a Feb. 14 email for the progressive group Justice Democrats, calling for signatures to petition demanding Biden “facilitate an immediate ceasefire” and affirm the U.N.’s International Court of Justice order last month that Israel do all it can to prevent death and acts of genocide.
“As the biggest funder of Israel’s military, U.S. government leaders have the power and the obligation to stop this unfolding genocide,” she added in the email.
On Monday, the Biden administration countered an Algerian resolution at the U.N. that would call for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire with a proposal of their own, according to the Associated Press: a temporary, six-week cease-fire deal enacted “as soon as practicable” and dependent on Hamas’ release of some 130 of their remaining hostages, many of which are presumed dead.
It would also condemn the planned offensive on Gaza and warn against the displacement of civilians into other countries like Egypt. A vote on the Algerian resolution, backed by 22 Arab nations and many other nations, is expected Tuesday morning. Beyond the U.N., negotiations between the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt have not been fruitful in recent weeks, according to negotiators.
The “uncommitted” effort in Michigan is not the first time Tlaib has condemned Biden for his policies, writing he “supported the genocide of the Palestinian people” in a video she posted on social media on Nov. 3, 2023. She’s remained a consistent critic and opponent of the president’s agenda since.
“Biden, support a ceasefire now,” a caption on the video read. “Or don’t count on us in 2024.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.